


(un)changed

by CassandraDarcy



Category: Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Genre: Angst, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-01
Updated: 2013-02-01
Packaged: 2017-11-27 18:24:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/665068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CassandraDarcy/pseuds/CassandraDarcy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another piece of him silently crumbles...</p>
            </blockquote>





	(un)changed

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first LBD fic, and my first fic in general in quite some time, so please be gentle! Darcy just won't leave me alone, and who am I to abandon him in his time of great need? This takes place pre/during Corporate Interview.

He is still trying to get used to Lizzie talking to him voluntarily the first time she unconsciously touches him. On a sunny Saturday morning, he is holding a map of San Francisco as Gigi is fetching coffee, and Lizzie is tentatively trying to see the map over his shoulder. It would have been impossible if they had been standing, but they are seated at the small café table and it’s easier for her.   
  
Suddenly, she spots an attraction that excites her, and she dives for the map, practically plastering her chest against half his back as her finger lands on the point of interest.  
  
He has no idea how long he stops breathing, and he can’t hear a word she’s saying for a moment. She never flinches, merely calmly settles back into her chair after he regains his wits enough to assure her they can go anywhere she wants.  
  
It wasn’t the last time, but it had been the most profound. And for all she appeared not to notice, he felt every brush of the hand, every unintentional lean toward his body, the caress of her hair on his face because of the wind, like a punch to his stomach.  
  
He doesn’t remember much of that night and the next day, because it was primarily consumed with thoughts of her. The dynamic had certainly changed since she had come to shadow his company, but he had no reason to hope for what he really wanted anymore.   
  
Appearing in her videos is one way to spend time with her that doesn’t look like anything voluntary. He isn’t necessarily comfortable with these aspects of his life appearing on the internet, but he figures it is the least he can do for her after what he has put her and her sister through, well-intentioned or not.  
  
Gigi tells him that Lizzie is looking for him to show up for her corporate interview, and he only hesitates a moment so that it doesn’t appear as if he is immediately dropping everything to oblige her.  
  
When he walks into the room and sees her sitting there for the first time since they parted on Saturday evening, he hates himself for the way the breath catches in his throat. He’s never been this hopeless over any woman.  
  
Only her.  
  
He knocks, enters at her command, and when he utters, “Gigi told me you wanted me”, he only realizes how that sounds after the fact. He makes a valiant effort to play it off, but he swears it throws her, too. He mentally shakes himself and vows to stop doing such idiotic things. He knows it’s a lie.  
  
He tells her that he will make time for her when in his heart it means he would do anything for her in general. He tries not to think about how sad that really is. When she smiles and gets up to close the door, she is casually touching him again, balancing herself with a hand on his shoulder and brushing past him.   
  
Another piece of him silently crumbles, and he remembers at the last moment that he is in front of the camera. What it sees, so will she, but he isn’t sure something didn’t slip past. He won’t know until the video is published, and by then it will be too late.  
  
He supposes it doesn’t really matter. She can read his face, between every line, and nothing will change the fact she doesn’t love him. They might not be friends, though they are certainly friendly compared to what they once were, but she made her stance not that long ago. He is trying to respect her feelings, but he also wants her to know that there is more to him than her first impressions.   
  
She comes back and sits down beside him, and as her elbow brushes his, he feels his eyes involuntarily shut in an unwanted anguish that would surely have Fitz telling him to stop acting like such a girl. He shakes his head and smiles at her, and they have a few awkward starts at the interview.  
  
Finally, she takes a deep breath and tells him she will edit all of that out and they start over.  
  
This calms him, the idea of starting over, and he dares to hope that things will change in his favor this time around. Because he knows with a certainty he has never felt in his life that his feelings for her will remain, forever, unchanged.

finis


End file.
